Forgiveness
Day 306, Friday, June 13
Neh. 9:1-37
A day after the great assembly we read about yesterday, Nehemiah gathers the people together for a prayer of confession.
Most of the prayer is devoted to confessing the sins, not of the people praying, but of their ancestors.
In our individualistic age we tend to deny any responsibility for anything previous generations did, but the fact is that we both benefit from and suffer the consequences of our ancestors’ actions.
Like many prayers, even the Lord’s Prayer, this one begins by exalting God and recognizing him as the creator of all that is. It then goes into a recitation of the history between God and his people.
While it includes the rebelliousness of the people and seeks forgiveness for that, it also places great emphasis on the faithfulness of God and his forgiving nature, describing him as a “forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.”

Friday meditation

Proverbs 30:17
The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.

Prayer focus
Great and mighty God, do not let our hardship seem trifling in your eye.

-Rev. Mark Fleming